90 with Steve

Cap and I bought what had to be a hundred pounds of ridiculous things to take back to the Tower, most of which I had delivered. We took a cab to Forbidden Planet, this famous nerd shop on Broadway, and went crazy. Most of it was posters and statuettes I would have bought back in my world, as well as enough books to fill a library and a whole lot of Warhammer toys.

Our favorite was a lifesize statue of Iron Man, which I sent to Tony just to see what his reaction would be.

It took us a while though. We ended up having to sign half the stuff we tried to buy.

We made it about a minute when we entered the comic book shop and started walking around.

I think the only reason we lasted so long at all was due to my Hulk and Cap's Black Widow shirts, which made us look like casual nerds. Right up until Cap curled a bicep. Then people looked over at us, blinked, and looked over at merchandise with our faces.

"Uh, excuse me?" A kid, who couldn't be older than sixteen, came up to us first, looking up at Cap with wide eyes. "Are you Captain America?"

Steve, bless his heart, answered as humbly as ever. "Steve Rogers," he held out his hand for a shake. The kid hyperventilated, then took his hand.

"Oh my god, this is so awesome!" he said happily. I felt like hugging the guy because that was exactly my thought when I first met Steve.

Quickly, phones rose up and I felt myself panic. With the finely honed instincts of a nerd, I yelled out to the store. "If you don't tell anyone we were here, Steve will sign stuff for you guys!" Every man and woman in the room froze. I kept talking. "He'll also take selfies!"

"What about you?" An older woman asked. I looked over at her to answer. Then I double-taked. Holy shit, she was wearing a Ben 10 t-shirt? ...HOLY SHIT SHE WAS WEARING A DIAL T-SHIRT.

Before I could hyperventilate as well, Steve put an arm around my shoulders. "Of course Mahmoud will," Steve said with that projecting way of speaking that made your voice easy to hear without needing to yell. "We just came to shop. We'd really appreciate it if you guys could keep our presence secret so we can have a good rest of our day."

"And you'll still take selfies?" the woman asked, sounding excited.

"Of course!" Steve said confidently. As the people spoke excitedly, Steve leaned towards me and whispered. "That's a photo of your face with your phone you take yourself, right? I like those."

I laughed, suddenly feeling really good. I mean, these were my people. Pretty much every nerd, every good and honest to god good nerd knows the feeling. It's a bond that fills the community, ties us across fandoms. We rage, argue, and complain. But laughing with Cap as we took a photo in front of a statue of Tony while I flipped it off and Steve did his 'Hitler Punch', I couldn't help but love my weird little family.

Damn, I really love you guys.

We paid for most of the stuff we got from Steve signing old school comics the store owner had.

Since he'd been dead since the forties and had never really signed anything at all, his signature on his merchandise was worth a massive amount. Like, it was ridiculous how excited the people in the store got when Steve agreed to sign things. I'm pretty sure he could pay for everything purely off of his signature and a few dozen 'Hitler Punch's'.

For some reason, he seemed really nostalgic as he pretended to punch people in the face over and over again.

After that, we headed out to grab more random garbage.

During the shopping spree, we acted like a pair of dumb tourists, going around as though we'd never lived in New York. We went to Rockefeller Center, stopped at the Museum of Modern Art (which convinced Steve that he would never understand any kind of art apparently), then the Central Park Zoo. By the time we'd stopped, the entire day had passed, and the night was falling. So we went to a bar with some pool tables to end the night. Steve got a beer, I got an iced tea and an asswhopping in pool.

"Seriously, you can't go easy on me even once?" I asked with a groan as Steve smashed the seven ball into the corner pocket.

"If I do, you'll never learn," he teased.

The bar we were in was pretty seedy. Like all good bars, really. Not too many people were in here so we had the table to ourselves. Steve leaned down to make another shot.

"Thanks for doing this, man," I said quietly, the Avenger taking his shot.

"Hey, this was fun," Cap grinned at me. "I haven't been able to just go into the city in a while.

"No, really man, it was awesome. I haven't been able to just do stupid shit with a friend in a while either," I laughed. "We should get some of the others to come along. Tony could do with just hanging out somewhere that isn't worth more than a third world country."

Steve snorted at that. He also missed, letting me finally take a shot. I moved in to attack while he took a swig of his beer. "It would be good for teambuilding. Maybe help with the tension that's built up."

"Tension?" I asked, missing my shot with a groan.

"Some of the people on the team rub each other the wrong way," Steve sighed. "It's understandable. We're a big team of strong personalities. Hopefully, if we nip it in the bud, it won't interfere."

"Huh," I thought of Ghost and clenched tightly at the pool cue in my hands. "That's good," I cocked my head. "What do you-"

"Mahmoud," Steve interrupted me. He never interrupted me. "...Are you okay? Being away from your family?"

"...No. Not always," I said, trying to hide my shock. Steve leaned in for his shot, but somehow I could tell he was waiting for me to continue. "I, uh… I do miss them. A lot. My mom mostly. She was awesome. I know people make fun of the whole stay-at-home thing, but she worked every day to take care of us. I mean, there were six kids in my family, and she kept us all straight and narrow… God, I never understood how hard she worked for us as a kid."

"My mom was the same way," Steve made his shot, officially winning the game. "She was a nurse. I… she died when I turned eighteen. After that… there was only Bucky," he leaned back looking down at the table thoughtfully.

"...My mom's name is Fatiha," I said softly. "If I ever get the chance, I'd like to introduce you to my family. Well, you and Bucky," I rubbed the back of my neck. "I mean, I don't know if I'll ever get to see them again," I said with not a hint of pain in my voice. "B-But when I do, it'll be awesome to introduce you to them, man."

Steve looked touched. "Thanks. I'd love to meet them."

I kinda laughed. "Granted, my parents are really not up on pop culture. My mom isn't going to have any idea who the hell you are."

The living legend laughed, a full belly laugh. "Oh, believe me, I'm not going to mind that at all!"

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